English Plot: Bandage (バンデイジ bandeiji), stylized as B.A.N.D.A.G.E, is a 2010 Japanese independent film directed by Takeshi Kobayashi. It was written and produced by Shunji Iwai. Based on the original novel Good Dreams (グッドドリームズ guddodorīmuzu) by Chika Kan, Iwai adapted it and renamed it B.a.n.d.a.g.e.

The movie title has actually two meanings, a literal one, which is a play on the words “Band Age”, because the story takes place in Japan’s early 1990s, the boom of indie rock bands. And a figurative one, in which a certain character uses music as a “b.a.n.d.a.g.e” to heal the feeling of worthlessness.

Back in the 1990s, way before the manufactured pop acts we now see on TV, there was a flood of indie rock bands that were televised during talent contests that guaranteed instant fame. Amongst that band boom, a group of young musicians managed to dominate the music scene, a band that shone brightest for a brief moment in time.